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A Connecticut program offers money to municipalities that change their zoning and planning regulations to allow more affordable housing in areas well suited for it. Municipalities can pass some of the incentive money along to developers. The approach, still being tested, is meant to streamline permitting and reduce community conflicts over the siting of affordable housing.

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The Connecticut State Board of Education on Wednesday voted to revise a teacher-evaluation policy to use students' scores from more than one standardized test in teacher reviews. Under the previous policy, the average score from one state test of a teacher's students was worth 22.5% of that teacher's evaluation, but the panel that had created the policy recommended revising it to include scores from at least two tests to determine the percentage. The tests will not be used in evaluations this year or next as the state transitions to new tests from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium.

Civil rights groups and some housing advocates are concerned that the Johnson-Crapo proposal for housing-finance reform eliminates requirements that loans be available for low- and moderate-income borrowers. "The bill explicitly abolishes affordable-housing goals," said Mike Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending. Advocates of the bill, including Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, argue that the current system is not helping underserved Americans and point out that the bill directs $5 billion annually to affordable housing.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has unveiled a $41 billion housing plan that would create and preserve 200,000 affordable-housing units over a span of 10 years. "In a progressive city, everyone should have the opportunity for affordable housing, and that's what this plan sets out to achieve," de Blasio said. Key to the plan is the requirement that developers who benefit from zoning changes must allocate a portion of their units to affordable housing.

Housing groups that seek affordable rental options for low-income families are urging lawmakers to support the Johnson-Crapo bill overhauling the housing-finance system. However, groups that advocate for homeownership as a pathway to wealth oppose the bill, saying it would limit access to credit for minority and low-income borrowers.

The achievement gap among children in Connecticut is, in part, a result of the lack of access that low-income students have to good schools, writes David Fink, policy director for the Partnership for Strong Communities. Only 31 of the state's 169 municipalities have significant amounts of affordable housing, and the situation traps low-income students in overburdened schools. "[T]he progress we hope for from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in school will also depend on housing costs and location and what happens from 3 p.m. to 9 a.m.," he writes.